I officiated over communion service at our church, Sanctuary, this morning. It was a good experience, as people were brought to the cross again. I was reminded of several things as I was talking to our people about communion. One is that this is one of the half-dozen things that every church does. Every church that is a community of Christ-followers has communion as a way to remember what Christ has done for us on the cross. It’s Jesus’ own instruction to us: “This do in remembrance of me.”

We do it differently – we have different theologies about communion, and the significance of communion is different from church to church – but the point is that we remember Jesus. We remember what He did for us on the cross. We remember that His obedience to the Father gives us forgiveness of sins.

As I was talking about communion, I was reminded of why we do it. It was so significant and so important that the first-century Christians – the early church – had a communion experience every time they got together to remember Him. Wouldn’t you think that those who were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion, or at least to the results of the resurrection, wouldn’t need anything to remind them?

We have much to remind us of Jesus, too. Even our dating system is built around the coming of Christ. And yet, Jesus says, in effect, “Do this in remembrance of me. This is important. I don’t want you to lose track of the basic tenets of the gospel, that I died for you so you could have forgiveness of sin. This is my body that I willingly gave up for you and I shed my blood so that you don’t have to live in your sin anymore but can have eternal life.”

Sometimes I think we make things way too complicated, far too sophisticated and complex, when all that Jesus said was, “You do this, church, to remember me.” I guess it bothers me that sometimes I still forget.